Robert Reffkin
American entrepreneur
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert L. Reffkin[1] is an American entrepreneur who co-founded the online real estate brokerage Compass, Inc. and serves as the company's CEO.[2]
Robert Reffkin | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 7, 1979 |
| Education | Columbia University (BA, MBA) |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur |
| Known for | Co-founder and CEO of Compass, Inc. |
Biography
Reffkin is African American and Jewish and grew up in Berkeley, California.[3] His father was an African American man from Louisiana, who already had two children, and shortly after Reffkin was born abandoned him and his mother.[4] Reffkin’s mother, Ruth, emigrated from Israel at age 7 and was later disowned by her family after they learned that she was pregnant by an African American man.[5] Since his mother never married his biological father, Reffkin took his surname from Gene Reffkin, his mother’s former husband, who is also his godfather.[5] His father, a jazz musician,[6] died when he was 11 years old.[7]
Through A Better Chance, he was matched with and enrolled in San Francisco University High School, where he also delivered its 2021 commencement address.[7][8] In 1994, Reffkin started his first business at age 15—a DJ company funded by his bar mitzva and babysitting savings.[7] He was involved with the Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship as a teenager.[7]
In 2000, Reffkin graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor's degree in under two years.[7] After graduating from Columbia, he worked for McKinsey & Company from 2000 to 2002 before returning to school and graduated from Columbia Business School with a M.B.A. in 2003.[7][9] At the time of his hiring, he was the youngest analyst hired by McKinsey.[1][10]
He then moved into investment banking and spent two years working for Lazard.[7][11] Between 2005 and 2006, Reffkin was a White House Fellow and worked for Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snow.[1] He returned to investment banking afterwards as a vice president for Goldman Sachs, becoming chief of staff for President and COO Gary Cohn.[12][13]
In 2007, Reffkin began a nonprofit, New York Needs You (now America Needs You) to mentor low-income college students. He did a $1 million fundraising by running a marathon in each of the 50 states in the United States and launched NYNY in 2009.[6][14]
In 2012, he co-founded the online real estate technology company Compass, Inc. with Ori Allon.[2] The inspiration for his business came from his mother, who suffered hardships working as a real estate agent.[9][15] Reffkin was inspired to use technology to improve the ability of agents to build their brand, analyze data, and conduct market research to make their business more efficient and profitable.[16][17][18] His net worth stood at $500 million following the IPO of his company.[19]
Reffkin worked with Peter Koechley, Upworthy co-founder and former managing editor of The Onion, in writing the book No One Succeeds Alone: Learn Everything You Can from Everyone You Can, published in 2021.[20]